Sometimes reality isn’t quite what it seems, and sometimes you’re the Jets.

The New York Jets were viewed as something of a circus last season and that perception seemed to follow them into 2013. Rex Ryan was quick to dispute that notion on Tuesday.

After a Week 1 win against the Buccaneers, Ryan and the Jets have a short week ahead of their Thursday night showdown with the Patriots. When asked about the negative perceptions surrounding the Jets by members of the New England media on Tuesday, Ryan scoffed at the notion.

“I think I know what the general consensus is out there – but it’s not even close,” Ryan said during the conference call. “We’ve had nothing but positive vibes inside our locker room.”

Ryan pointed to the camaraderie among his players as one instance to discredit the claim, but he also stooped pretty low in using the Jets’ preseason record — like that’s at all relevant — as further proof of his claim.

“We have way more positive momentum than people give us credit for,” Ryan said. “We were 3-1 in the preseason, I think that’s good. Inside our building it’s been nothing but positive. We’ve had probably as good an offseason as anyone in the league when it comes to the amount of players here for voluntary work, the type of work they’re doing at minicamps and then our training camp, we had great competition at several positions. We have a close football team.”

Maybe the Jets are a close team and maybe they do have some “positive vibes” reverberating throughout their locker room, but the true test will come on Thursday when they take their talk to the turf in Foxboro.